Electronic commerce is a term that is commonly used to describe the distribution, purchase, sale, marketing, and servicing of goods or services over electronic networks such as the Internet. One critical requirement for the success of an electronic commerce web site is that they must provide value to the customer, as well as providing service and performance.
One way that businesses provide value to customers in a web site is to provide them with tools that the customer can use in solving a particular problem associated with the goods or services provided through a web site. Among the many tools provided are calculators that assist the customer in making a purchasing decision. For example, in a web site for a business that sells home-improvement products, such as flooring, appliances etc. the web site may provide calculators in a web page that make it easy for customers to size their needs. If the customer is interested in flooring, the retailer may provide a carpet calculator where the customer can input a room width and length, select a width of the carpet, and the calculator will determine the number of square yards that the customer requires. Similarly, if the customer is interested in an air-conditioning unit a calculator may be provided where the customer can input the room width, length, and height, and the calculator will determine the cooling capacity (in BTUs) required.
One industry that is very active in the electronic commerce area is the Financial Services industry. Financial services refers to services provided by organizations that deal with the management of money. Among the types of businesses involved in financial services are banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies and stock brokerages, which provide a variety of money and investment related services.
Web sites operated by financial services companies offer a wide variety of calculators for their customers. For example, loan calculators with amortization schedules may be provided by some companies. These calculators may vary with regard to their inputs, but many will have windows to input a principal amount, the number of months within which to pay the loan, an interest rate, the payment schedule, and a total amount paid for life of the loan. Among other common calculators are savings and investment calculators, retirement calculators, 401(k) calculators, etc. More complex calculators may be used to develop financial plans that take into account the assets, liabilities, debts, and expenses of an individual.
A disadvantage shared by sites that provide web pages with calculators is that data entered by the customer is not saved for future use by the customer and the business. Another disadvantage of the way calculators have been implemented in many sites is that data entered into one calculator cannot be shared with another calculator that may use the same data. Consequently, as customers use multiple tools and calculators, the same questions are asked multiple times. Furthermore, calculator inputs are not fed to a customer service representative's system so that they can analyze customers needs.